Battlefield Hardline Ready for Digital Pre-Order

Microsoft is finally making Battlefield Hardline available for users to purchase directly from its Xbox Store, and doing so isn’t a bad move for some.

Microsoft announced that users could pre-order Battlefield Hardline in the Xbox Store ahead of its March 17th release this past Thursday. Two versions of the game are available to purchase digitally, mirroring the plans that developer Visceral Games and publisher Electronic Arts announced earlier this year.

Battlefield Hardline Standard Edition gets users 3 sets of in-game items to be used in the game called Battlepacks. Gold Battlepacks include 2 advanced items and 2 standard items for use in the game. The free add-ons also come with experience boosts and special load outs that buyers wouldn’t get otherwise. Also included is the Versatility Battlepack with an assault rifle, camouflage skins for weapons and an experience boost. Battlefield Hardline Standard Edition costs $59.99 and does include a digital download of the game itself.

Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition gets players that Versatility Battlepack and more. 10 Gold Battlepacks are included, along with the Precision Battlepack and the Suppression Battlepack. The Suppression Battlepacks come with an assault rifle and maxed out magazine. It’s meant for those trying to turn their in-game characters into absolute killing machines. The Precision Battlepack in includes a highly accurate assault rifle, a skin to cover it with and another experience points boost. It’s more expensive than the standard version, costing $69.99.

Sony is also offering Battlefield Hardline digitally for the PS4 and PS3. There are both Standard and Deluxe versions of the game available in their store too. Battlefield Hardline’s story will use a war on crime to put players at the center of the criminal underworld. They’ll play as cops in episodic stories inspired by television shows like Law & Order. The game’s multiplayer will let players participate on both sides of the law, putting cops against criminals in a handful of multiplayer modes. Previous games in the Battlefield franchise focused on war simulations.

Most gamers have walked away from pre-ordering titles, preferring to wait and see how a game performs on launch date or at least sitting in their physical pre-order until they’ve had a chance to read the reviews. Users who are planning to purchase the game digitally might want to go ahead and pre-order it through their console now. That’s because on launch day it’s probably going to be very difficult to download the game.

Purchasing a digital copy of Battlefield Hardline now means users won’t need to wait until the last-minute to download the game. Purchases are automatically downloaded to user’s Home console slightly before and after release. What this means is that users can make the purchase now — a little more than two weeks ahead of release – and have the game waiting on their hard drive to unlock on launch night. It’s one of the few advantages to going digital with your games purchases on both the Xbox One and PS4.

Microsoft’s Xbox Store shows the game as weighing in at a hefty 45GB. That means users who plan to buy digitally will need to download at least some of that 45GB before they can play. Users who wait to buy the game digitally until the last-minute could be stuck waiting on the sidelines while all of their friends have their copies of the game completely installed. Depending on how speedy the connection is, that could take a long time. The Xbox One does allow users to begin playing a game when a certain percentage of it is installed, but getting to that point could still take a while.

Battlefield Hardline will also be available for owners of the Xbox 360 and Windows PCs.